Sunday, November 8, 2009

The renovation of our 1906 Victorian is moving into the last phase, finishing work! The exterior primer is going on the house, the trim, tile, stairs and flooring, carpeting and interior paint. We hope to be moved in before Christmas, three weeks before the littlest Becker will be joining us! Eddie, our painter, has agreed to prime the baby's room and wait for a call from us in the hospital to know what color to paint the room.

Prehaps the one thing we are most excited about is the flooring. Via our trim guy, Kyle, via our stair guy, Gabe, we were introduced to Leatherwood Inc. They reclaim wood from old factories, warehouses, the bottom of the Cumberland River, etc. and use the wood for flooring in historic homes, residential homes, park benches and even models of log cabins for museums. Greg went out to Leatherwood to see the red heart pine that will match the existing floors in the original part of the home. The new floors and stair treds and risers will come from a cotton mill outside of Memphis, TN and an old school house in Pulaski, KY. Not one tree will be cut down for the beautiful old floors in our home, all for the bargain price of $3.85 a square foot! (One flooring store in Nashville wanted to charge $9 a square foot for reclaimed heart pine.)

Everyone, please keep your fingers crossed that all will be done in timely fashion so we can settle in before Baby Becker arrives!

Rex went trick-or-treating for the first time this year. He was very tired and only went to one house. Our sweet neighbor Betty, being the good grandmother she is, had animal crackers for the little ones. Imagine how happy Steph was not to deny Rex of his booty on Halloween night, animal crackers! Oh, Rex was a lion and roared mightily.